Michael Donahue

Bulger Shot And Killed Innocent Bystander, According To Investigators

UPDATED 12:07 PM EDT Aug 09, 2011

BOSTON -

Michael Donahue, a Boston native and truck driver, had just finished dining out with a friend when James "Whitey" Bulger and a masked man shot him in the head, investigators say. Donahue died immediately.

The father of three did not have a criminal record and planned to give his neighborhood friend, Edward Brian Halloran, former White Hill gang member, a ride home from Anthony's Pier 4 Restaurant. According to court testimony, Bulger planned on killing Halloran because of Halloran's relationship with the FBI, former White Hill gang hit man Kevin Weeks testified.

Bulger had no premeditated plans to kill Donahue. When Bulger and a masked gunman attacked the car Donahue and Halloran were in, Donahue was hit in the head by a bullet and died immediately.

Donahue's son Tommy was 8 years old when his father was killed. Tommy Donahue said he remembers he planned to go fishing with his father the day after Donahue was killed.

"I was 8 years old, and I had just made my first Holy Communion at St. Mark's, and my dad was going to take me fishing, to celebrate. That's why he was down the waterfront that day. He was getting stuff so we could go fishing," Tommy Donahue said.

Tommy Donahue was present in the courtroom when Bulger was indicted and expressed his respect for Judge Reginald Lindsay, who told the US Justice Department that its agents were partly responsible for Donahue's death.

"The government has been so bad in all this. Just delay and delay and delay ... When that judge spoke like that, it felt like justice. After all these years, it felt like justice," Tommy Donahue said.

Although the Donahue family is glad Bulger is in custody awaiting trial, they feel nothing can make up for what happened to Michael Donahue that day.

"I would have paid anything to have my father growing up," Tommy Donahue said.

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